Council Public Safety & Justice Committee: Flock Safety Cameras Audit Review

Our Take

Credit to the City of Columbus for putting this hearing on camera and online, because oversight of license plate readers almost never happens in daylight. A committee "audit review" sounds bureaucratic, but this is exactly the kind of meeting where the real questions get asked: how many plate scans has Flock logged, who inside and outside city government can query that data, how long is it kept, and has it ever been shared with ICE, other states, or private data brokers. If Columbus wants to prove this program is accountable, the audit findings need to be published in full, not summarized in a press release.

We've said it before: a system that photographs every plate that passes a Flock camera, whether or not the driver is suspected of anything, is a de facto tracking network for the entire city. An internal audit is a start, but audits written by the agency being audited tend to grade themselves gently. Residents should be asking who conducted this review, what access they actually had to logs and search records, and whether any misuse cases were found and disclosed — or quietly buried.

If you're in Columbus, this is the moment to show up, watch the recording, and ask council to make the full audit public. Check our camera map to see where Flock has already been installed near you, and visit our take-action page for tools to push your council members toward real transparency instead of a self-graded pat on the back.